Whose right of way? London bus driver appears to swerve into cyclist at lights

Cyclist Silvio Diego was approaching traffic lights near London’s Elephant and Castle one morning last week when he saw a bus seemingly force another cyclist off of her bicycle.

Mr Diego’s video, captured on his helmet camera, shows the number 168 bus veer in the direction of the cyclist, who had not yet started to move after the lights turned green.

Uploading the clip to his YouTube channel, Mr Silvio said: “The bus driver saw this cyclist but maybe because she took a second to realise the lights were green he decided to nudge her into the pavement and out of his way.

“We have asked Metroline, who operate the bus in question, to launch an immediate investigation into this incident.”

Credit:
Silvio Diego/YouTube

Mr Diego described the incident , with heavy sarcasm, as a “success for the Hang Back campaign” a controversial Department for Transport initiative urging cyclists to stay out of the way of lorries turning left.

Cycling groups have criticised the campaign for 'victim blaming' - putting the onus on cyclists to avoid HGVs, rather than the other way around.

Caroline Russell, transport spokesperson for the Green Party, said of the campaign: “The message should have been directed at the lorry drivers to ask them to stay back from people cycling to avoid them being exposed to the risk of causing a crushing collision.

“Until we adopt a road danger reduction approach to keeping people safe on our streets, the miserable toll of death and injury on our streets will continue.”